Childhood Monster Blogest

It's time for the release of the wonderful paranormal romance novella FEARLESS by Christine Rains.  As another great piece of writing is introduced to the world, we also find ourselves presented with a fun blogging opportunity.

The task is simple.  Blog about your childhood monster.

I didn't believe in the monster in the closet or the monster under the bed as a kid.  My childhood terror was much more insidious than that.  It came only in my dreams, and it assumed the most innocent of forms.

A puzzle.

Doesn't sound terrifying yet, does it?  Yet it was there inside the worst recurring nightmare I had as a child.  I had plenty of dreams about dinosaurs and aliens, but I usually enjoyed those more than anything.  They gave me a fun scare.  Or maybe that fact just illustrates how strange I was even then.

The narrative of the dream is simple enough.  

I'm sitting outside in the backyard in the middle of the night.  It's dark. Everyone else is asleep.  I'm putting together a puzzle.  I don't know what the picture is, because all the pieces are upside down.  Not that it matters. Something sinister is driving me to put together the pieces of the unknown puzzle.  They go together easily, because this strange force is driving me.

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A feeling of panic grips me as the pieces fit together, and the puzzle nears completion.  I know that something awful is going to happen once it's completed, but I can't stop the process. I have no control.

My hand shakes as I fight to avoid putting the last piece in.  Unfortunately I'm not strong enough. The last piece slides into place, and in that instant, my house explodes with my family and pets still inside.  And I know my hands caused this thing to happen, and it was totally out of my control.

That dream recurred from the ages of 8-11.  I hated it every time.  That puzzle was my arch nemesis in the dream world, and I couldn't defeat it.  The story ended the same way every time.  Luckily, the dream eventually went away.